Climate data

These tools could in theory be used for any time series but
the main rationale for their existence is for analysis of historical
climate data. The idea is to allow you to go to the
source data and look for answers to questions like:

Has the Earth got warmer recently?

Is it still getting warmer?

Is CO2 the only explanation for what has happened?

Are there solar cycles involved?

Are there other influences we don't understand yet?

If so, how much do they account for?

What is likely to happen next?

It's not the place of this Web site (or anyone else) to tell you
the answers, even if I could! This is just a tool to help you
dig into the data to help you form your own
opinions. Whatever you decide the most
important thing is that you learned what the issues in analysis
are and how to test your ideas against real data.

Beware sharp tools

However, with sharp tools comes great responsibility... Please read
the notes on things to beware of - and in
particular on the problems with short,
cherry-picked trends. Remember that the signals we are dealing
with are very, very noisy, and it's easy to get misled
- or worse still, to mislead others.

About this site

This website is a self-funded personal project by Paul Clark,
a British software developer and practically-oriented
environmentalist and conservationist. You can provide support
through my
Charity Tip Jar
if you like.

Personal note:

I started this site in 2008 because I wanted to dig underneath
what seemed like extreme claims and counter-claims in the
"Global Warming Debate". Ten years on, it now seems clear to me
that CO2 is indeed the primary driver of global warming,
which is proceeding at roughly
1.5°C per century, but with some
interesting short and long-term cycles overlaid. These cycles
can produce shorter-term periods of both flatline and rapid
increase, which get both 'sides' over-excited.

However, please remember this is only historical data, and
"past performance is not necessarily a guide to the future".
Climate models which do predict the future take into account positive
and negative feedbacks such as water vapour, clouds, albedo and
frozen methane, and to my mind the most (only?) interesting
discussion in this field is around the sign and magnitude of those
feedbacks. What this site can do is act as a check on those models
and illustrate how the climate system has reacted to past
forcings.

As I said back in 2008, as a life-long Green I think a shift to
a efficient and sustainable way of life is a Good Thing in any case,
and I'd invite my fellow engineers to use their energies to help
solve our many inefficiencies.

Best wishes

Paul

How you can help

I welcome constructive suggestions
of new algorithms or datasets I could add, and in particular
help from experts if I've got
any of the maths badly wrong (which is quite possible).

Mail me at
'paul' at this domain. Flames will be silently extinguished.

Ten years - and a move!

WFT's 10th birthday and a new home

6th March 2018:

I started WoodForTrees in early 2008 to explore climate data myself, and a few people have found it interesting and useful since, despite a lot of mis-use of trends!. In celebration - and because the old server is too knackered and expensive - WFT has moved to a new server... Please report any weirdness!

Spring cleaning

Fixing lots of out-of-date data

30th October 2017:

I've had a general spring (autumn?) clean of a number of datasets which had got out of date because their sources had moved, including UAH, Hadcrut4, GISTEMP, RSS, SIDC-SSN and NSIDC Artic Sea Ice. Thanks to the folks who have pointed out problems!

UAH 6.0Beta

Now supporting UAH6.0Beta

29th August 2016:

I have now added UAH6.0Beta alongside the previous UAH5.6 release, so they can be compared. WTI is still using UAH5.6 until UAH6.0 is fully released.

Charity Tip Jar

Charity Tip Jar for the Woodland Trust

1st January 2012:

A number of people have kindly suggested I provide a 'tip jar'
as a reward for keeping WFT running, but I've always been
uncomfortable with taking any payment myself because it's crucial
that WFT is seen as independent of any agenda-driven funding.

However, I've decided to open a Charity 'tip jar' in favour of
the British Woodland
Trust. Please visit
JustGiving.com/WFT
if you find WFT useful and would like to provide encouragement.